Healthy Collard Greens Recipes

Dark leafy collards add bold flavor and boost the calcium in this healthy skillet mac and cheese recipe with a crispy topping. If you don't have collards, kale, Swiss chard and spinach are delicious substitutes.

This hearty jambalaya is bursting with chicken, smoked turkey sausage, and shrimp. It takes just 25 minutes to prep in the morning and then your slow cooker will work its magic and deliver a tasty meal at the end of the day.

Be sure to carefully cut out the thickest part of the center rib and stem of the collard greens so the wraps can be tightly rolled up. Serve with extra hot sauce for those who like a little kick.

Steaming corn right on top of the collards saves time and dirties fewer pots in this easy dinner recipe. Skip bottled BBQ sauce and mash blackberries with some pantry staples to yield a finger-licking-good barbecue sauce for the juicy pork chops. To make it even faster, grab a bag of prechopped collards from the produce section.

These collards can be served as a vegan main dish or as a hearty side. If possible, serve with injera, the traditional crepe-like bread common in Ethiopia (see Associated Recipe).

Dipping tofu in buttermilk makes the coating stick for a crispy pan-fried tofu, reminiscent of fried chicken. Spicing up the collards with paprika coats them with smoky flavor while keeping this dish vegetarian. And this quick, easy and healthy dinner comes together in just 25 minutes, so it's great for busy weeknights.

You don't need broth for this lentil soup recipe--it's rich thanks to the browned bits in the bottom of the pan that meld into the soup, packing it with flavor. Ground coriander, from the seed of the cilantro plant, has a floral, citrusy flavor that dovetails nicely with the lemon.

Have you tried savory oats yet? It's a nice change-up from the sweet way oatmeal is typically served, plus you get a full serving of vegetables. Serve with hot sauce, if desired.

Collard greens are meltingly tender when cooked for a long period of time. Smoked turkey in place of bacon adds the traditional smoky taste.

Instead of getting flavor from a ham hock, this mess of black-eyed peas and collards gets its smokiness from canned chipotles and caramelized shallots, thereby keeping it vegetarian.

Antioxidant-rich collard greens and fiber-packed black-eyed peas have a starring role in this nutritious soup. There's no need for loads of ham or salt pork--just a small amount of bacon gives it a wonderful smoky flavor. You can skip the bacon and substitute vegetable broth for chicken broth for a great vegetarian dish.

Mable Clarke, a South Carolina cook and activist, serves this collard greens recipe at monthly fish fries to support the Soapstone Baptist Church in the community where she grew up. There, farmers' markets overflow with big, leafy collards that are typically simmered with ham stock to make up this traditional Southern side dish. Clarke uses premade ham stock but it can be hard to find. We adapted the recipe with chicken broth and a ham bone or hock. As the bone simmers it adds flavor to the broth and yields enough meat to serve with the collards.